ABSTRACT
The German word translated as “peace” is “Ruhe,” which could equally be translated as “rest.” A guiding thought of this chapter is that what Wittgenstein’s commentators often call (appropriately enough) “disquietude” might well be thought of as a form of restlessness. Such a retranslation already starts to show the connection of the disorder of thought and the kinds of writing in which such disorder finds its appropriate expression. We might then glimpse something of how the achievement of rest from out of our restlessness assumes certain literary forms and philosophical methodologies (e.g., the giving of examples; the breaking off of the series of examples at a certain moment). We can also see why the criticism that the peace Wittgenstein provides is only temporary and provisional is not quite to the point. For some philosophers, “peace,” by its very nature, seeks to be everlasting. But a brief period of rest can be quite genuine and provide significant relief, even if it is only temporary.
